Amazon passes 50,000 apps in Appstore for Android

More than 30,000 are Kindle Fire compatible

Amazon's off to a good start ahead of its 10:30 a.m. PST press event in Santa Monica, Calif, thanks to its Appstore for Android reaching more than 50,000 apps.

The figure is actually 50,505, with 31,250 of those Kindle Fire compatible. It took just 18 months for the store to reach the milestone.

This second number is particularly significant as the company readies to launch what most expect will be two new tablets Thursday: likely a 10-inch Kindle Fire and a new Kindle ereader, possibly the Paperwhite Kindle we saw leaked last week.

Hint, hint

Amazon aired an advertisement during Wednesday night's first regular season NFL game that seemed to hint at a new larger Kindle Fire (possible the Kindle Fire 2) and a backlit, higher contrast, higher resolution ereader.

While we won't know just what's going to come out of the airplane hangar Amazon is hosting its event in for a little while longer, we can only imagine they're getting ready to take on tablet titan Apple (expected to launch an iPad Mini next month) as well as Google (Nexus 7), Barnes & Noble (Nook Tablet) and Samsung.

Samsung recently unveiled its Galaxy Note II and while they don't bill it as a tab, it fits certain slate criteria, particularly in size.

TechRadar is live at the Amazon event and will have all the latest, hands on reviews and more coming out of Los Angeles.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

News Editor (US)

As the US News Editor, Michelle (Twitter, Google+) keeps her eye on all things tech with particular interest on phones, tablets and finding out who the people are behind the devices. Any phone that can survive a regular (accidental) drop has her vote for best handset. Michelle previously worked covering local news in the Bay Area and has been with TechRadar since July 2012.